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Pressure builds on Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Mark Darr to resign
Democratic Governer Mike Beebe and state’s Republican congressional delegation all call on Darr to step down for violating ethics rules
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com
LITTLE ROCK (CFP) — Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Mark Darr is under increasing pressure to resign, after the state ethics commission fined him $11,000 for misusing campaign funds during his 2010 campaign.
Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Mark Darr
Darr, a Republican, accepted that fine on December 30. But in a letter to the commission, he blamed sloppy record-keeping for the violations, insisting that he never “intentionally took money that didn’t belong to me.”
While Darr has not made any public statements since the ethics committee announced its decision, his attorney told local media that he has no plans to step aside.
But a day after the fines were handed down, Democratic Governor Mike Beebe said it would be “in everybody’s interest, including Mr. Darr, if he resigned.”
Perhaps more ominously for Darr, his fellow Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation — U.S. Senator John Boozman and U.S. Reps. Tom Cotton, Tim Griffin, Steve Womack and Rick Crawford — issued a very blunt joint statement calling on Darr to go.
“As elected officials, we are keepers of the public trust. We are bound by a very strict code of conduct that is the basis of that trust,” the statement said. “Based on Lt. Gov. Darr’s own admissions, it is clear he has violated that trust, and he should step down immediately for the good of our state.”
Darr is the second statewide constitutional officer to run into trouble this year. Former State Treasurer Martha Shoffner, a Democrat, resigned after she was indicted for allegedly accepting bribes from a state contractor that were delivered in a pie box. Her trial is set for July.
If Darr resigns, a special election would be held to pick his replacement.
Darr, 40, a restaurant owner from Springdale, had never held elective office before winning the lieutenant governorship in 2010. He based his campaign, in part, on opposition to Obamacare.
In its report, the ethics commission said Darr made personal use of more than $31,000 in campaign funds and charged more than $3,500 of personal expenses on a state-issued credit card. He was also cited for receiving improper reimbursement for nearly $3,600 in travel expenses from his home in Springdale to his office in Little Rock.
He was also cited for mistakes in his campaign finance reports.
The ethics complaint against Darr was filed by Democratic blogger Mark Campbell, first reported in his Blue Hog Report.
After the ethics issues surfaced last summer, Darr abandoned his campaign for the 4th District seat in the U.S. House. He has not announced whether he would seek a second term as lieutenant governor.
Two Republicans, State Reps. Andy Mayberry and Charlie Collins, have announced they are running for lieutenant governor. Democrat John Burkhalter, a state highway commissioner, is also running.
Alabama blogger jailed over reporting on potential congressional candidate
The allegation that Rob Riley, a potential 6th District candidate, had an affair has sparked a lawsuit, an injunction and an arrest
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitcs.com editor
BIRMINGHAM (CFP) — U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus’s decision to retire has set off a mad political scramble in suburban Birmingham that has already taken an extremely strange turn with the arrest of a blogger over what he reported about one of the possible candidates.
Jailed blogger Roger Shuler
Roger Shuler, who writes a blog called Legal Schnauzer, alleged that Rob Riley, the son of former Gov. Bob Riley who is widely expected to run for Bachus’s seat, had an extramartial affair with a lobbyist.
Both Riley and the lobbyist vehemently denied the allegation, and Riley sued Shuler for defamation. Then, he got a state judge to issue an injunction ordering Shuler to remove the information from his Web site.
When Shuler refused to comply, he was arrested for violating the court order. He has been in the Shelby County Jail since October 23, insisting that the judge’s ruling violates the First Amendment.
“Free press, free speech, the First Amendment — none of this means anything to these people,” Shuler said in a jailhouse interview with the Web site WhoWhatWhy. “I don’t see any reason I should remove the material. Is a person obliged to take an action based on a judge’s unlawful order?”
Free press advocates have rallied to Shuler’s defense, including the ACLU, The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and The Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ, which keeps track of more than 200 journalists jailed around world, has Shuler as the only American on its list.
Rob Riley
The national and international coverage of Shuler’s detention has likely drawn more attention to his original allegations against Riley than they would have received on Legal Schnauzer alone. But Riley, an attorney, told the CPJ that he decided to take action against Shuler because the blogger “has a history of making up things and writing things that are outlandish lies.”
“He has no proof this is true. He has just decided to be a cyber-bully and make stuff up, and I’ve had enough,” Riley said.
Riley is one of more than a dozen potential Republican candidates in what’s likely to be a crowded field for the 6th District seat, which Bachus has held since 1992. It is one of the most Republican districts in the country, giving Mitt Romney 74 percent of the vote in 2012.
Among those who have already announced are State Rep. Paul DeMarco; Gary Palmer, former head of the Alabama Policy Institute; Chad Mathis, a surgeon and Tea Party activist; businessman Ed Langan; and Will Brooke, an attorney with a venture capital firm. State Senator Scott Beason, who challenged Bachus in the 2012 GOP primary, is also considering a bid.
U.S. Senator David Vitter to decide on Louisiana governor’s race in January
Vitter tells C-SPAN that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will run for White House in 2016
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com
WASHINGTON (CFP) — Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter says he will decide in January whether to seek Louisiana’s governorship in 2015.
U.S. Senator David Vitter
“We don’t have any hard deadline in mind, but I would expect we’ll come to a conclusion sometime in January,” Vitter told C-SPAN in a December 19 interview.
“It comes down to one key question …where I think I can make the most positive difference off of the remainder of my political life,” he said.
Vitter also said it is “very obvious” that his state’s current governor, Republican Bobby Jindal, will make a bid for the White House in 2016.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
“I do think he’ll run. I think he’s been running, and I think he’ll be a meaningful and signficant candidate,” said Vitter. However, the senator stopped short of endorsing Jindal, saying he has not yet thought ahead to the 2016 race.
Jindal, 42, elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011, is term limited as governor.
Vitter, 52, said regardless of whether he runs for governor or stays in the Senate, it will be the last political office he holds. His Senate term runs until 2016.
Vitter also said he sees a “50-50 or better chance” that Republicans will take control of the Senate in 2014, which would make him the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. However, he said the possibility of gaining the majority won’t be “a determining factor” in deciding whether to stay in the Senate or run for governor.
Because Louisiana holds its state elections in off years, Vitter could pursue the governorship without giving up his Senate seat.
If he runs for governor, Vitter will likely face a intra-party challenge from Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, who has said he is also likely to run for governor and has already set up a campaign Web site.
In Louisiana, Vitter, Dardenne and all other candidates from any party run together in a single primary, with the top two vote getters vying in a runoff if no one gets a majority.
Two Democrats have also announced — Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell from Shreveport and State Rep. John Bel Edwards from Roseland. There has also been speculation that another prominent and popular Democrat, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu might make the governor’s race if he wins re-election in February.
Landrieu is the brother of Vitter’s seatmate in the Senate, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, who is up for re-election in 2014.
Embattled GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais faces primary struggle in central Tennessee
State Senator Jim Tracy, DesJarlais’s challenger, has outraised the incumbent more than 4-to-1
By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics editor
MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (CFP) — The Republican primary battle in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District is shaping up to be one of the most contentious of the 2014 cycle, with incumbent Rep. Scott DesJarlais trying to hold his seat amidst an avalanche of negative personal publicity.
U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais
DesJarlais, 49, first elected in the GOP landslide of 2010, is facing State Senator Jim Tracy, 57, of Shelbyville, who is telling anybody who will listen that voters in the district “deserve a strong and effective voice in Congress, which right now they do not have.”
Tracy’s not-so-veiled reference is to revelations from the case file from DesJarilais’s bitter 2001 divorce from his first wife. In it, the congressman admitted having a string of extra-martial affairs and — perhaps even more damaging for an avowed right-to-life lawmaker — encouraging his then-wife to have two abortions.
DesJarlais (pronounced Dez-yar-lay), a medical doctor, also admitted having relationships with two female patients, which prompted the Tennessee State Board of Medical Examiners to reprimand him for unprofessional conduct and fine him $500.
Details about DesJarlais’s divorce became an issue in his contentious 2012 re-election campaign, which he won with just 56 percent of the vote in the heavily Republican district. However, DesJarlais successfully fought to prevent release of the full transcript of the case file until after the election.
After the transcript contradicted some of DesJarlais’s previous explanations about his behavior, his political support began to crumble. Two months later, Tracy jumped in to run against him.
To combat the damage, DesJarlais has been campaigning around the district, which includes 15 counties in central Tennessee, with his second wife, Susan, by his side. His campaign Web site also features a picture of him with his wife and three children.
DesJarlais has tried to deflect questions about his past by noting that his messy divorce happened nearly 13 years ago, long before he got involved in politics. However, fundraising figures show how much damage has been done.
State Senator Jim Tracy
During the first nine months of 2013, Federal Election Commission reports show that DesJarlais raised about $273,000, with $182,000 in cash on hand. By contrast, Tracy has raised nearly $922,000, with $768,000 on hand.
During the 2012 election cycle, DesJarlais raised $1.26 million.
A number of prominent conversative activist groups have lined up behind Tracy, including the Citizens United Political Victory Fund, the Concerned Women for America’s political action committee and the Tea Party Leadership Fund.
However, DesJairlais has held on to some conservative support. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California has given him $2,500, and the National Rifle Association tossed in another $1,000.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who is leading a number of congressional investigations into the Obama administration, appeared at a DesJarlais fundraiser back in March.
In November, DesJarlais announced that he would introduce legislation to impeach Attorney General Eric Holder, a stance that should play well in his district.
The congressman also defended remarks he made during a town hall meeting in Murfreesboro in August when an 11-year-old girl asked what she could do to help her father, an undocumented immigrant, stay in the country with her.
“We have laws, and we need to follow those, too,” DesJarlais responded, to cheers from the crowd. After he came under attack from liberal groups, he put a YouTube video of the exchange on his Web site, accompanied with a fundraising pitch.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin draws Tea Party challenger in GOP primary
Former State Senator Randy Brogdon wants rematch with Fallin, who beat him in 2010
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics editor
OKLAHOMA CITY (CFP) — GOP Governor Mary Fallin will face a primary challenge from former State Senator Randy Brogdon, a Tea Party favorite touting himself as the “constitutional conservative” in the race.
Former State Senator Randy Brogdon
“We are in the fight of our lives for liberty, and I feel morally obligated to lead that fight on behalf of Oklahoma families,” Brogdon said in launching his campaign Web site on Chirstmas Day.
“My promise as governor is to protect Oklahoma families from the overreach of federal and state government and to restore your God-given unalienable rights of life, liberty and property,” he said.
Brogdon, 60, the former mayor of Owasso in suburban Tulsa, served two terms in the Oklahoma Senate from 2002 to 2010. He gave up his seat to run for governor, finishing second to Fallin in the Republican primary with 39 percent of the vote.
During that campaign, Brogdon made national headlines after he was linked to a proposal from some Oklahoma Tea Party activists to create a volunteer state militia to resist federal power.
Under fire from fellow Republicans, Brogdon insisted he was only expressing support for a provision in the state’s constitution that allows for creation of such a force to help during emergencies.
“If you’re talking about having a state guard to march on Washington, D.C., of course not,” Brogdon told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview at the time.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin
Fallin, 59, was elected as the Sooner State’s first female governor in 2010, after serving two terms in the U.S. House, representing the 5th District, which takes in much of metro Oklahoma City. She announced back in October that she would seek a second term.
A month later, Fallin ordered state-owned National Guard facilities to stop processing appplications for spousal benefits, in definance of the U.S. military’s directive to extend benefits to same-sex couples. The decision means that military spouses — both gay and straight — must travel to federal facilities to apply for their benefits.
Oklahoma voters outlawed same-sex marriage in a 2004 ballot initiative. Fallin said her decision “protects the integrity of our state constitution and sends a message to the federal government that they cannot simply ignore our laws or the will of the people.”
In December, Fallin racheted up the anti-federal rhetoric by ordering state education officials not to allow their federal counterparts to have any input in developing the state’s educational standards.
Two Democrats have filed to run for governor — State Representative Joe Dorman from Rush Springs and RJ Harris, a Norman attorney who ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in 2010 and as an independent in 2012. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in 2012.
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